


Introduction to Fashion and Design

by Neigedens



Category: Community
Genre: First Meetings, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-10
Updated: 2010-09-10
Packaged: 2017-10-11 15:45:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/114018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neigedens/pseuds/Neigedens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was love at first sight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Introduction to Fashion and Design

It was love at first sight.

The first time Abed saw Jeff's metallic silver shirt, he fell madly in love with it.

~

"And then my dad said it probably wouldn't come out," said Abed. "But my mom used the extra-strength Tide and after about three washes it started to fade a little, but you can pretty much still see the stain, especially in daylight. My name's Abed, by the way."

The other kid, whose name, Abed could see by the writing in his used Spanish book, was either Troy Barnes or Jenny Adamns, started. He had been staring glassily at the "CHICLE EN LA BASURA POR FAVOR" sign on the whiteboard. He turned to look at Abed and said in an airy voice, "Sorry, were you saying something?"

Abed nodded and decided to try a different approach.

~

"I don't want your money," said Abed. "I want your shirt."

Jeff stared at him dully without understanding, but Abed hadn't expected him to. The idea had been a surprise to him as well, but Abed had recognized it immediately as an inspired concept. Sometimes you needed to change it up a bit to get noticed, and assuming _arbol_ meant what he thought it did, it looked like Abed would be able to solve two problems at once here.

"Yeah," said Jeff, slowly. "OK." And they quickly switched shirts.

It was weird, though. In high school, Abed had always slipped through the cracks and mostly evaded attention. He'd steered clear of all of the cliques and almost all the other kids because they made him uncomfortable. He got the impression that, unlike the beautiful, designer-wearing thirty-something high schoolers from the movies, his actual classmates were all normal and a little lost, like...well, like Troy, for one. Abed wanted to help him.

~

"Hey," said Troy, uncertainly. Abed seemed to have popped up out of nowhere. "Can I...help you?"

Abed held their Spanish book to the page in the back where the dictionary was. "Arbol. I looked it up. It means tree."

Troy at first had no clue what he was talking about, but Abed tapped the spot he was meant to be looking at insistently. "Oh. Arbol. That means we're partners." Troy felt at first nervous, then an odd sort of relief. At first Abed had weirded him out, but now, after sitting next to him in study group Troy had at least gotten used to him. Plus he talked so much that after awhile he sort of put you at ease.

Now he wasn't saying anything, though. Now he was looking at Troy kind of watchfully and playing with his shirt collar fitfully, as if waiting for a shoe to drop. Troy raised his eyebrows and said, without even thinking, "Uh. Cool shirt."

Abed nodded and looked as if something had been proven for him. "Thank you. Thank you very much." And together they went into the library, where they almost immediately got into such an involved conversation about trees, M. Night Shyamalan, and Jurassic Park that they didn't even remember their Spanish project until two hours later.


End file.
